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Trump & Trade: The Crisis in the Multilateral Trading System

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  • Kristen Hopewell

Abstract

President Trump is widely seen as reversing 70 years of US trade policy and abdicating the American hegemon’s traditional leadership role in the multilateral trading system. Trump has threatened to withdraw the US from the WTO, abandoned trade multilateralism for aggressive unilateralism, and jeopardised the WTO’s dispute settlement mechanism by blocking appointments to its Appellate Body. As this article shows, however, both the crisis in the multilateral trading system and the American hegemon’s turn away from the WTO – including abandoning multilateral trade negotiations and blocking Appellate Body appointments – originated prior to Trump. This shift in the US orientation towards the multilateral trading system cannot, therefore, solely be attributed to the rise of populism under Trump. It is also a reaction to the decline of the US’s institutional power – its power over the core institution and rules governing trade. Amid the rise of China and other emerging powers, the US’s ability to dominate global trade governance and write the rules of global trade sharply diminished, leading to an erosion of American support for the multilateral trading system it once led. While realism has fallen out of favour in IPE, understanding recent dynamics in the trading system requires revisiting its core insights.

Suggested Citation

  • Kristen Hopewell, 2021. "Trump & Trade: The Crisis in the Multilateral Trading System," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(2), pages 271-282, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:cnpexx:v:26:y:2021:i:2:p:271-282
    DOI: 10.1080/13563467.2020.1841135
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    Cited by:

    1. Lili Yan Ing & Dani Rodrik (ed.), 2022. "New Normal, New Technologies, New Financing," Books, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), number 978-602-5460-41-8, December.
    2. Giuseppe Zaccaria, 2022. "You’re Fired! International Courts, Re‐contracting, and the WTO Appellate Body during the Trump Presidency," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 13(3), pages 322-333, June.
    3. Richard Baldwin & Dmitry Grozoubinski, 2022. "Strengthening the Multilateral Trading System: the ‘WTO Rising’ Imperative," Chapters, in: Lili Yan Ing & Dani Rodrik (ed.), New Normal, New Technologies, New Financing, chapter 12, pages 141-152, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA).

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